About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 2023)
Wednesday, June 28,2023 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News Trump - 2024 GOP Candidate “I don’t think primary voters look at electability. I think they look for the person they think will pursue what they believe in.” -Sen. Mitt Romney I’m the grandson of two Italian immigrants. As the fic tional Don Corleone of Godfather fame said, “I am old school; I believe in respect.” And honor is the basis for that respect. That’s why Donald Trump is unlike Corleone. An American with any honor would not be indicted for espionage and withholding classified doc uments. Or acting like Trump has and still does. In 2020, Trump’s approval level among the general public was at 39 percent. Plus, only 49 percent of Americans believed Trump was a strong leader, down from 60 percent in 2016. Only 42 percent thought he, A) managed our government effec tively, and B) cared about people like me. Even fewer thought he was honest, only 36 percent. However, per 87 percent of Republicans, he was a strong leader. An astounding 86 percent believed he was an effective manager. Despite his antagonistic, narcistic per sonality, 83 percent thought he cared about people like them. Almost three fourths (72 percent) believed him to be honest, despite the facts. Trump says he was a tough kid from Queens. No, he was the pampered kid of a wealthy tycoon that probably pushed around smaller kids. He was sent to expensive private boarding schools. Trump then went to fancy, expensive, pri vate colleges, his entry greased by Daddy’s money. After ward, Daddy provided him with hundreds of millions in seed money. He dodged the Vietnam draft... five times. Poor guy had “bone spurs,” per Daddy’s MD. During this same period of time, my brother dropped out of Georgia Tech and joined the Army, although he had a metal pin holding his upper and lower left arm together. Back then, if you could breathe and weren’t in college, you volunteered or were drafted. Don Corleone was tough as nails. But, true to the code that Italians like me were brought up under, he had honor. Not so for Trump. He is amoral. Morality, facts, and truth have no meaning for him. There is an old saying that accurately describes Trump: “How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving!” Most Americans (and our allies) sawTrump’s lack of honesty when he was in office and since. But his lack of ethics should surprise no one. His history is replete with deals in which he unethically nailed his part ners with no remorse. It is no accident that although his en terprises went broke numerous times, Trump walked away unscarred as his hapless, trusting partners bit the dirt. Fur- See Bernard, A6 JACK BERNARD The Biggest Oxymoron of All Act naturally. Original copy. Random order. And then there’s everyone’s favorite, jumbo shrimp. These are all oxymorons, a figure of speech combining two opposite ideas to create an effect. Here’s one that may have slipped under the radar: hu manely slaughtered. By definition, it means, per the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, that an animal should be completely sedated and insensible to pain prior to being slaughtered. I can only imagine how comforting that is for all the cows and pigs reading this column. I gave up eating red meat at one time. One of the reasons was to im prove my digestive system, specifi cally so that running in events that didn’t finish on the same day they started didn’t take such a terrible toll on my stomach (Incidentally, it didn’t make a difference). But the primary reason I stopped was because I had seen and read enough to know that there was no such thing as humanely slaughtering an animal. I can hear what you’re thinking: Sure, but I bet you still ate chicken and fish! And you would be correct, but if I thought about it long and hard enough (and poured over any available material on the humane slaughter of chicken and fish), I could probably have given up those as well. What really held me back is my wife: it’s not easy planning meals with only vegetables and meat from animals that don’t have four legs. I know a lot of vegetarians that do OK with their diets, and if I really put my mind to it, I think I could as well. I also know a few vegans, but I seriously doubt that I could survive on just 127 calories a day. When she was a little girl, my mom witnessed first-hand a chicken getting its head cut off. This was well before 1958, of course. The headless chicken ran aimlessly around the yard for what she said at the time seemed like hours before finally falling over; it was then plucked, gutted, and thrown on the grill. She never ate chicken again after that day. I can’t say that I blame her. I think seeing something like that would have the same effect on me but THANK GOD FOR THE HUMANE SLAUGHTER ACT OF 1958 that protects me from seeing - and, of course, all of our fine-feathered friends from experi encing - something so cruel and vicious. I’ve seen more than my fair share of 40-foot flatbed trailers on the interstates carrying countless tiny cages jammed full of live chickens being transported to whatever place it is they go before they’re humanely slaughtered, wrapped in cellophane, and stocked on the shelves of your local grocery store. Those poor chickens: cooped up in a mesh cage with See Ludwig, A6 SCOTT LUDWIG The New China: As Observed by Me Ni hao! That’s pretty much the ex tent of my Chinese vocabulary. It means “hello,” and I practiced it over and over so that I could impress my Chinese hosts during my visit to Beij ing. They weren’t impressed. In fact, I found the Chi nese rude, crude, and lack ing in rudimen tary social graces. For in stance, the na tional pastime in China is spit ting. As you walk down the streets of Beij ing, a city of 13 million people and 9 million bicycles, all you hear is the gut tural sounds of throat clearing and then the disturbing, patooey! I kid you not. I shot a photograph of a man spit ting from a high rise, nine floors up. Spitting has gotten so prevalent in China that the government, in antici pation of the Olympic Games, issued a fiat banning public spitting. Next to public spitting, the most egregious behavior of the Chinese is their rudeness. At the hotels, there are cab stands with security people around to ostensibly regulate the cab traffic, prevent gouging by the drivers, and in general protect the public. It’s just the opposite. The hotel people tell you an amount you should expect to pay to get to reach a certain destination... Cab after cab re fused to take us to Tiananmen Square for the amount stated by the hotel. Further, they refused to use the trip meter. Try saying, “Use the trip meter,” in Chinese. They never smile; they just stand around looking inscrutable. Mao posters are ubiquitous, literally, yet, when you try to engage the Chinese in conversations of politics, they dummy up. I asked an elderly gentleman about the human rights protest in Tianan men Square - Man blocks tank picture shown on every TV in the world and on the cover of Time magazine - he was crickets about it. It is as though there is a collective ongoing joke about us Westerners and the Chinese are the only ones who get it. The Modus Operandi in China is when you meet a Westerner, talk with them only about the great past em perors, the great past Mao, the Great Wall, and the funny doors with tall thresholds to keep out short spirits. On all other topics they just snicker up their kimono sleeve, bow a lot, and act all Chinese. But to hear the Chinese brag about their open religion policy, you would think a Billy Graham style tent meeting might spring up any minute right there in downtown Beijing. To challenge this, I told the hotel concierge that I was very punctilious about my church go ings and inquired about the location of the nearest Methodist church. By his reaction, you would have thought I painted a mustache on one of the mil lion or two Mao posters hanging about. Every important decision made by the Chinese is guided by birth symbols. Dogs don’t marry pigs. Lions are dei fied. A low threshold lets in evil spirits. Water is good. Fire is bad. The number nine is supreme and odd numbers are preferred over even. I shudder to think what would happen if, during a Tao istic seance among the members of the Chinese Communist party rank and file, a winged lion whispers in the ear of President Xi Jinping, “Americans bad. Chinese good. Lions say push but ton.” The Lions are now in Cuba and armed to the teeth. JAMES STUDDARD Tax Incentives are a Study of Stories, Data, and Best Guesses When you want to explain some thing to someone, you tell them a re- latable story. When you want to prove something to someone, you show them the numbers to back it up. In the world in which I live, which is a cross sec tion of journal ism, public relations, and public policy, the difference between these two concepts is generally re ferred to as“an ecdote versus data.” Today I’m going to try to illustrate that the two aren’t opposing concepts but are, in fact, complementary in under standing the issues of the day. And yet, are still limiting. This morning I read a headline that “The Battery” - the Cobb County mixed use development which is an chored by the Atlanta Braves ballpark - signed a tenant for a new corporate headquarters. It is the third such company to decide to place its home and top executives there. The Battery has already exceeded its original revenue projections and commitment to Cobb County tax payers who invested in the devel opment via tax abatements and infrastructure improvements. Yet, it is still difficult to read these stories without the “taxpayer funded” subtext that journalists - pro and con - contin ually use to frame the narrative of stories about The Battery. That’s the first part about anec dotes in journalism. Stories should be consumed with the reader question ing, “Why is this being told to me?” If the answer is that it is trying to frame an issue or anoint good actors versus bad ones, it’s best to ensure that there is corresponding data to back up the anecdote that is being told. This particular story appeared to be just about a company planting its flag at an address, so no hidden agenda or debate about tax credits should be presumed. It was not written to argue or persuade. For those inclined to do so, however, there was another big nugget well beyond the lede. The company was relocating from Wildwood, an older development that was once the crown jewel of suburban Atlanta corporate offices. It’s within a decent jogging distance of The Bat tery, also in Cobb County. If you were trying to read the headline of the story as an anecdote to support the conten tion that The Battery has been an un questioned success for Cobb County taxpayers... you now have a valid question as to whether this was a win. And you need more data. But we already have the data we need, you say? I’ve already referenced the net additions to Cobb County’s tax base to prove the point. But... what if we took a tenant al ready paying rent to a building on Cobb County tax rolls and moved it to The Battery? Did Cobb County win? Or was it a wash? Well... we could go through the tenant lists at The Battery - at least for the office side - and probably deter mine which tenants were new to the county and which just moved within the jurisdiction. That would be a sim ple way to get the right answer, right? Well... no. Because nothing in volving money and time is ever sim ple. Another article in the same publication this week noted that a tro phy office building in Buckhead could not arrange financing for a sale an nounced years ago, amid the declin ing market for office real estate. In the post-Covid world of “work from home/anywhere,” there is less demand for office space. Companies are either reducing their footprint or giving up office leases altogether as their leases expire. Newer, trophy properties in hip areas across the country (like The Battery) continue to command peak rents, but older of fices and those off the beaten path are struggling to find tenants, even at re duced rates. So... where would that HQ have signed if The Battery hadn’t been built? We’ll never know. Maybe in Cobb, maybe just across the Chatta hoochee in Atlanta’s hip new West Midtown district. The point here is this: Even data has its limits. Data can tell you what happened if it is captured correctly. It can’t tell you what might have hap pened under hypothetical scenarios. This is why economics falls short of being a science. You can’t run repeat- able experiments to confirm you have the right answer. You can only ob serve what actually happens, in hind sight. Why does any of this matter? One of the most closely followed study committees by the Georgia Legisla ture this summer will be one to review the entire catalog of Georgia’s tax in centives. Those for and against will come armed with anecdotes and data. Each side will tell compelling stories and will then add in supportive numbers. With each presentation, we need to look beyond the lede. We need to not only see what is presented, but ask what is not, what is missing. We need to understand that some incen- tivized activity would have happened here anyway. We need to understand that there could and likely will be a cost to doing nothing - possibly greater than the tax dollars invested. At the end of the day, there will not be a definitive answer. There will only be best guesses. Let us hope they guess right. A decade of being the “Best State for Business” is riding on these decisions. Let’s hope the right questions are asked - and answered - to the best ability possible. CHARLIE HARPER \10\\(Pf]Amehcans-Care.com J/|Vv»Ul/ ©2023 Creators.com
